Game of the Month: August 2006

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Which one takes the crown? The perky pooch or the day at the beach?

By Levi Buchanan

With all the mobile games that are released each and every month, it can be quite daunting to decide on which title to spend your download dollars. Granted, you could go by our review scores alone and weed through the long list of names to find something that scored high or low, but what if you had somewhere else to turn?

Rather than wait until the end of the year for our big award blowout, IGN.com has decided to employ a monthly tribute to the weeks that were. We're resolved to illustrate to our readers what we thought was the very best game for each system over the past month and tell you the reason why.

How does it work? It's simple. Any game released in the past month is eligible for the award and is taken through a battery of tests by every editor on that particular channel. After we've finished evaluating each game that comes down the pipeline, we put our heads together and decide on a single "best of" winner that's worthy of the title "IGN Game of the Month." Pretty straightforward, don't you think?

Now that we have the guidelines out of the way, let's move on, and congratulate this month's winner...

Why I Picked It: Despite its incredible accessibility, Beach Ping Pong is a title of surprising depth. Don't let the one-button control scheme fool you into thinking this is a simple, shallow racquet sports game like I did. As you got into the rhythm of the game, the smartness of the controls reveals itself and you're making some pretty killer shots. The opponent difficulty can be a little trying, but that makes victory all the more rewarding. Beach Ping Pong comes in both 2D and 3D varieties, but each looks nice with bright colors and good art. As I said in my review: "This is the first racquet sports game that offers hardcore depth and casual accessibility in a single package."

This was another hard one. Both Beach Ping Pong and My Dog are great games -- but the definitely appeal to different audiences. Whereas Beach Ping Pong is a classic mobile game is every sense of design philosophy, My Dog demands a little more attention and TLC. The rewards are worth the effort, though -- just like a real dog. The play time is fun, the visuals are cute, and there's quite a bit of interactivity to help foster the relationship between you and your virtual pooch. Was I-play inspired by Nintendogs? Obviously. But not every one has a Nintendo DS and that makes My Dog the next best way to play with man's best friend.